by Angela White
“I get to be her XO for the next runs. Among other things.”
Kevin did a fast sweep of the areas that weren’t getting much attention now, not flinching at the sight of Ray and Dale taking the opportunity to exchange an instant of affection. Those two were becoming popular with the camp and with the vet, who was walking over to them with a semblance of a smile. The two firefighters were riding with the vet when they traveled and Dale was even helping in the animal area that was slowly growing again.
Maybe the vet is gay, Kevin thought, turning to sweep another area. That would explain some of his reclusive behavior. No one wanted to expose themselves and receive the treatment that Ray and Dale had gotten.
The doctor was doing house calls, his group of interns trailing close behind, and Kevin had a flash of John and Anne moving from the camper. They’d been arm-in-arm, smiling and happy. What right did the government have to take that away?
Kevin pushed the heavy thoughts aside and turned his attention to the new people outside the fence. If something went hinky, he would be in the thick of it.
3
Angela compared the values to the prices she was quoted, using the time to scan each and every one of the people. She found things she didn’t like, but none of them were assassins and that was the best she could hope for these days.
As she returned to Safe Haven’s side of the fencing and the Eagles started breathing again, Angela waved a few of them over. “They’ve got things the camp will want. Figure out a way to let them spend time shopping.”
“We can’t secure it out there,” Daryl protested firmly. “Have them come inside.”
“No,” Angela insisted. “The camp needs to know they can come and go. The walls and fences are making people more nervous than they need to be.”
Zack agreed. “I’ll handle it.”
“Water crew checked in. Should catch up with us in a few hours. Full load. We’re all set to start cleaning it, too. Plenty of bleach.”
“That’s great.” Angela was relieved. Samantha and Kenn’s teams were out there without Safe Haven’s protection. She wouldn’t relax until they returned.
“Extend lunch by two hours, but let everyone know we’ll travel longer tonight to make up for it. We can’t get off schedule. That would be a dangerous mistake.”
4
“So what happens now that Adrian’s well enough to take over?”
Kenn’s cup paused at his mouth, but Tracy read nothing on his face when he answered.
“Everything goes back to normal, I hope.”
Tracy stared at him, wondering how he honestly felt about everything that had happened. Unlike the others, Tracy hadn’t been here when Angela was afraid to even look at a man.
Kenn grunted, hating being away from camp. “Some things will go back to normal. Some of it will be…different.”
“Like Kevin and Kyle.”
“Yeah.” Kenn sipped his coffee.
Those two had done a great job, had that perceptive connection with Angela that Kenn shared with Adrian. The chances of the former leader letting them go unused was slim to none.
“Will he have two XOs now?”
“Adrian won’t split them up. That trio works too well together.”
“What then?”
Kenn dumped out the last of his cold coffee. “Have a feeling we’ll know when we get back.”
“They’re switching over while…”
“Yes, while I’m out of camp. It’s another punishment that I earned.”
Tracy was quiet for a long moment, considering how badly she wanted an answer.
“Spit it out before you choke.”
Tracy flushed. “Does he love her?”
Kenn knew who she was talk about. “It’s more than that with her. She…completes a man somehow, even when she doesn’t want to. It’s…”
“Complicated.”
“Yeah.”
There was silence again except for the sound of the others working and Tracy broke it first, unable to keep from asking.
“Will Marc leave her when he finds out?”
“He knows,” Kenn snorted, staring into the darkness around them. “He has since the beginning.”
“Will she go to him?”
Kenn stood up, dusting himself off. “Who’s to say that she hasn’t already. Adrian isn’t coming to you anymore, is he?”
Tracy flushed. “Not since Charlie made his interest known.”
Kenn didn’t care. In fact, he thought it was a sign that Charlie would be too distracted to be the problem that some people were expecting since Matt and the assassin kids.
Kenn could tell that Tracy had considered that, too, but it was his turn to dig for information that he couldn’t ask anyone else about. “What do you see in him? Power? Safety? What’s your angle?”
Aware that she was talking to Charlie’s stepfather at this moment, Tracy started to roll out what she’d told Angela.
Kenn shut it down. “Stop. I’m not his mom. I don’t care if its sex, the things he can do, or where he can get you. You don’t have to lie to me. I don’t have any influence.”
Tracy didn’t think that was true, but chose to give Kenn what she hadn’t any of the others. “He has everything I need in a man, except the age.”
“Ah. A combination.” Kenn studied her, not feeling particularly parent-like, but curious just the same. “Of all the things that go through your mind, which one would kill you to lose about him?”
“You mean he might change as he gets older.”
Kenn waited for her to answer.
Tracy considered it, hearing Tonya near them. She didn’t feel the need to censor her answer.
“How he looks at me, probably. He doesn’t see a whore. If that ever changed, it would kill me.”
Kenn grunted at the unexpected answer, able to tell she meant it. Kenn’s old mind spoke up hesitantly. How did that boy get Adrian and Kyle’s piece of ass to flip? Not just anyone could do that.
Kenn didn’t take that thought any further, but he didn’t shut out the voice either. He may not use the information anymore, but he still needed to be in the know and that only happened by listening.
Tracy felt the air thicken as Kenn pierced her with those cool, blue eyes. She didn’t feel any attraction for him, no urge to become his toy, but she could feel him evaluating her in that way and others.
“Why does he want you?”
Kenn’s cruel tone might have broken other camp women. Tracy only blinked at the change and crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “He says it’s because the men who visit me don’t understand my worth and he does.”
“Do you believe that?”
Tracy looked away. “I want to.”
“So you can be more than his relief,” Kenn guessed.
Tracy moved aside as Tonya joined them. “Yes. He believes people can change.”
Kenn met Tonya’s nervous gaze over the rookies shoulder. “So do I.”
Tonya was startled into a smile. Instead of her usual greedy, malicious grin, this one was happiness in a raw form.
Kenn was stunned for an instant by the feeling of honest desire. Where had that come from? Nature’s latest attack was through the grass and weeds, causing rashes and allergies. As a result, Tonya’s pharmacy needed to be restocked, along with Safe Haven’s supply trucks. Bug bites had also increased and Tonya was staying busy making trades and collecting on deals when she wasn’t in lessons. As a result, they hadn’t had as much free time together as usual. Did that explain it?
“We’re all ready to leave.”
Kenn immediately turned to the rest of the team. “Lunch break’s over. There’s a hospital ten minutes from here with our names written on it. Let’s go scrub them off and clean them out.”
“Ooh-rah!” came the answer from the few service men along.
Tonya went to his right, loving life except for one tiny little thing.
Kenn glanced over in time to catch the small smile playing
on Tonya’s lips and wondered if his words had caused it. If so, I should do it again, he thought. She’s cute when she’s not being a bitch.
5
The Mississippi Medical Center appeared like the other hospitals they’d gone to for supplies. Kenn wasn’t expecting trouble, but that didn’t change how he handled things. He knew better than to take chances.
“Mini perimeter and recon team, move in.”
The men got into place outside their vehicles to provide cover while a small team went to the doors, searching for possible problems.
“Looks clear,” Allan called.
Kenn waved the next team forward and took his place in front of them.
“Stay together. If you take off on your own, you can find your own ride back to camp.”
Kenn led them up the stairs and inside the medical center with Tonya on his right flank and Tracy on his left. The females planned to keep it that way until they were back safe and sound behind the walls of camp.
“We’ll be stopping on three floors for this trip,” Kenn reminded them. “Watch your six.”
“What are we searching for?” Tracy asked.
“Anything we can use in camp and also anything that might be a problem.”
“Does that qualify as either?” Crista drew their attention to the row of seats in front of the reception desk. “One of them moved.”
The lobby held half a dozen bodies, all wearing the dryness that suggested they’d come here to die. The bands on their arms and vomit stains close by said they’d needed a fix in the worst way.
“You’re sure?”
Crista had her finger on the trigger. “The hand, like in the old films.”
Kenn frowned. “Go check it out, then.”
Crista came forward, bringing anger in to replace the fear. She padded to the corpse warily and gave a nudge to the leg draped over the arm of the chair.
Everything happened in a blur.
The body jumped up and ran from them, screaming.
The team flinched and began to shoot.
“Stop it!” Kenn shouted, knocking guns down. “Hold your fire!”
Kenn got them to holster their weapons and sent Crista to check the body that had dropped like a stone when the bullets began to fly.
“Find out if we killed it and get right back here.”
Crista once again approached the corpse, but this time, she did it slowly, with her feet braced to open fire if she was attacked.
“Please, don’t. I only took a little.”
The weak voice stopped Crista’s shakes and she snorted at herself angrily. “Just a junkie. Looks like we all missed.”
Kenn was sure he should scold them for the bad aim, but chose to let it go in favor of them shooting without orders. “Everyone who fired, head to the vehicles and switch out. We’ll wait here.”
The harsh punishment had feet moving slower than they should have been, making the switch take longer than Kenn had anticipated. He was dismayed to find shadows lengthening on walls by the time the replacements made it in to them. They’d only gotten through the lobby so far.
He waved Seth and Becky over to the groaning junkie. “Keep an eye on him and do not let her fire.”
Kenn led the rest of the team through the double doors, noting that Tracy and Tonya were both still with him. They hadn’t fired and it was a sign of the progress that Angela was hoping for. He would be sure to tell Kevin so it would make it back to her. Kenn didn’t have much contact with Angela these days. He was still mulling over that when he realized the hair was standing up on the back of his neck.
Damn, he thought. Pay attention!
“Do you hear that?” Tonya asked.
Members of the team who’d been in the train station when Seth was stabbed tensed, hands going to holsters.
“Easy,” Kenn calmed, recognizing the sound and the feel. “We have company. Everyone get behind the doors and we’ll take a look.”
The team rushed to hide and Kenn sent a quick plea upward for them to not kill anyone.
The doors creaked open to reveal a short shadow wearing a hospital gown.
“Was someone there?”
Kenn saw Tonya start to leave the cover of the vending machine and shook his head.
Tonya understood the child might not be alone and stayed where she was. She wasn’t sure where the urge to go to him had come from anyway. It was just another lost kid.
“Please, my mommy needs help.”
The team waited until the child grew tired of calling and went back the way he’d come.
Kenn motioned for them to follow and the entire team slipped down the hall in the shadows behind the little boy. No more than eight, he had long brown hair that hung in thick waves and a deep cough that suggested he’d been a patient here before the war. The child slowly made his way up a rear stair, dragging a filthy blanket that had once been yellow. He muttered to himself the whole way.
“She said they were here, but I didn’t see them. Maybe she’s wrong. There are no good people.”
The team slipped along the dim corridors behind the child who was walking calmly through the body-littered halls like it was his home.
“They won’t like it that I’m out again,” the boy mused to himself. “I’ll take the tunnel.”
The boy stopped in front of the elevator doors and began tugging on them. The team was surprised when the doors opened to reveal another room and a long hall that resembled the sewer tunnels some of them had traversed in Little Rock.
Kenn’s gut tightened.
The boy went through the hallway and slid inside a small window that was meant to be for dispensing things to patients. The clipboards, clocks, and dusty files said this had once been a busy place. Now, it appeared deserted except for this one small boy.
“Is he real?” Tracy whispered, drawing a frown from Kenn.
Quiet, he gestured.
The boy disappeared from sight and the team stopped, waiting for Kenn to decide how they would proceed.
“Find the kid. We need to lock up for the night,” a loud voice called down the hall.
“I will. Should I dose him?” another female answered from nearby.
“Third time this week he got out. That’s probably a good idea,” came the answer.
The team ducked behind anything they could use as footsteps echoed down the hall toward them.
“Hey! Needle-teen is still roaming, too. Chase him my way.”
“Okay.”
A harried-looking woman with shoulders as wide as Kenn’s clipped down the hall in her sensible office shoes. Her freshly curled hair and healthy skin immediately angered the Eagles. The boy had been barefoot, with a rash on his hands.
The nurse, assuming from her clothes, went by the hiding team without noticing any of them. When she vanished from sight, Kenn waved them all forward. If this turned out to be what he was now expecting, they would take it all down.
Kenn didn’t spot any cameras, but there was still the sense of being watched. As they walked up the filthy halls, he realized it was coming from holes in the walls.
Kenn paused to put his eye to one of them and recoiled as if stabbed. They wouldn’t be opening that room anytime soon. It was a body dump.
Late afternoon tossed eerie shadows over the jumpy team and the cells didn’t help that feeling. There were people in some of them, most dead, but all hooked to machines and monitors.
“What the hell is this place?” Tonya demanded in a gruff whisper.
Kenn paused at the intersection, choosing their path. “A ward of some kind. Be quiet.”
Kenn used the small mirror on his wrist to peer ahead of them before waving the team forward. The hall they were in had three exits. Two were steel doors that they would need a code to open. Despite the rest of the country having no power, there was a red light over both of them. The third set of double doors waited behind a large reception desk and rows of chairs. Kenn took them straight to it.
“Concentrate on you
r intersecting fields of fire,” he ordered, getting into position.
“On my count…three…two…go!”
Kenn kicked the door open as he flipped on the light on his gun and the team followed him in, all shouting orders.
“Get down!”
“On your knees!”
The two men standing guard immediately dropped to their knees, but the three nurses in the large waiting area ran.
“Dart them!” Kenn ordered. He loved using the enemy’s weapons.
Tonya and Tracy raised their dart guns and fired. Both missed. Their second shots hit the rear woman before she made it through the door, but not the other one. She took off running, shouting for help.
“That went well,” Kenn commented sarcastically.
He went to the kneeling men and decided who to talk to. He hit the man on the left with the butt of his gun and knocked him out.
The other man braced for the same, but Kenn grabbed him by the shirt and tossed him toward the team. “He has one minute to tell you what this place is, where the CO is, and why you shouldn’t kill him. Starting right now.”
Kenn let the team handle the information extraction, sure they could. The females Angela and Adrian had picked were brutal when crossed, and the little boy they were now searching for had already touched all of them in some a weird way. Kenn could feel it on his own skin.
He looked through the paperwork on the desk as he scanned the monitors. Very few men were coming toward them, but nearly every cell had an occupant. That ratio of guards to patients didn’t add up.
The cabinets on the walls yielded an array of medications and supplies, things the outside world hadn’t seen in half a year. As Kenn finished each bag, he pitched it into the arms of whatever team member happened to be closest. He also kept an ear out for the intruder response that would come, but he wasn’t overly worried. He was counting on light security after the way their patients were roaming freely.
Across the room, Allan paused, a name catching his attention. Methylene powder.
The XO on Zack’s team quickly began sweeping the small bottles out of the cabinet, one of which found its way into his pocket. He’d been waiting for the right way to perform his much-anticipated upcoming duty for the Eagles and Methylene was perfect.